5:00 p.m. update: Last of storms now swinging across eastern Charles and Calvert counties and into St. Mary's county where they may still producing damaging winds.

4:15 p.m. update: Severe storms now exiting the District and southern Fairfax county and have moved into the east and southeast suburbs (Anne Arundel, southern Prince William and southern Prince George's counties). Widespread power outages continue to be reported. These storms will continue heading east southeast across Stafford (in Va.) Charles and Calvert county in the next hour.

@tbva: Cleared Falls Church...lots of sirens out there. I live near Rt 66, hope nothing bad going on. A million sticks in the street but trees look ok around here. Power flickered a lot but it's steady on now

Comment below with conditions where you are. And see our full forecast through mid-week. Continue reading this post for prior updates...

3:45 p.m.update: Severe storms now exiting Montgomery County and heading through District and northern Fairfax County. Power outages have been reported in many areas. Storms have produced torrential rains and damaging wind gusts. Storms now bearing down on southern Fairfax County and Prince George's County.

3:15 p.m. update: Intense storms about to impact much of immediate metro area - especially north and northeast of I-66. Entire immediate area under warning. NWS mentioning "destructive winds" of over 70 mph possible.

3:00 p.m. update: Strong to severe thunderstorms presently in Loudoun and northern Fauquier counties area heading eastward and will arrive in Montgomery and Fairfax counties in the next hour. The strongest activity in northern Loudoun county may produce damaging winds as it crosses into Maryland. Isolated gusts of 50-70 mph are possible. This line of storms should be approaching the western side of the beltway around 4 p.m.

From 1:50 p.m.: As an approaching cold front clashes with near-record heat this afternoon, strong to severe thunderstorms are likely to develop. These storms will be capable of produce torrential rain, dangerous lightning, and damaging wind. To the northwest in WV, Pa., and Md., numerous reports of downed trees associated with the approaching line of storms have been logged by the National Weather Service. The most likely timing for the storms is between 2:30 and 4:00 p.m. north and northwest of the beltway, between 3:30 and 5:00 p.m. west of the beltway, inside the beltway and northeast, and between 4:30 and 6:00 east, southeast, and south of the beltway.

As I said, we may be too darned dependent on electric power reliability for our own good. Nowadays, shut off the power...the entire infrastructure collapses! We can't even go back to "manual" if we have to...everything runs on electronics. What would make things worse is if the North Koreans, the Iranians or EVEN THE VENEZUELANS [!] developed the capability to "shut us down" with a well-aimed electromagnetic pulse. And this doesn't even mention the possibility that some band of terrorists like this Al Shabaab group could do so. As it is even a thunderstorm-initiated power outage is bad enough.

The ugly stuff on radar is just north of the Md-Pa border in the York-Lancaster area. Just like Alberta Clippers, scooting just north of our immediate region. We'll probably have some rough t'storms, though. It just got up to 100.4 on my ourdoor digital thermometer, so there is plenty of heat.

The squall line in the WV eastern panhandle has gotten noticeably uglier on radar on the last few minutes. If this stuff hits D.C., party's over. (But pls wait 'til the Bayreuth Lohengrin intranet stream ends!)

Just doing some work and sorta keeping an eye on the weather alerts on my phone. I don't really need hourly reports that it is hot. Then the words "tornado warning" caught my eye. Whoa. This could be an interesting Sunday afternoon.

Winds blowing very hard in Fair Oaks and temp is dropping rapidly. Went from 96 to 77 in 10 minutes at nearest Weatherbug station. Taking cover, windows are making noise and hear comes the rain and thunder.

Centreville VA Right on the edge of a big storm. I've watched one of my digital thermometers drop from 97 to 84 degrees in less than 15 minutes. Wind, a little rain, a little far away thunder. Heat wave over!!!

thanks for the clarification on "west" of the beltway...northern PW did indeed get some rain, but just from 3:15-3:25. Preceeded by heavy winds, temp went from 101 to 80. Even though clearing now, unofficially my local rain gauge says about 0.2-.25 inches.

Still in the middle of it in Fair Oaks. Haven't heard much thunder, but there is lots of very heavy rain. I think that heat advisory that was in effect until 8pm can be cancelled now. Temp here is 74 degrees.

It still felt like it came out of nowhere here it college park....in the course of an hour it got darker and darker...good thing the wife and I decided not to go to the pool! Now the dog is terrified b/c of the thunder, the wind is gusting and pushing the limits of those tree branches, and the lights have dimmed a few times. Sure hope we don't lose power!! ...Not sure if the rain qualifies as "soaking" or "drenching," but it's sure coming down!!

The storm was crazy as it blew into Falls Church....just got the stuff that would blow around secured when it hit. Yikes. Now it's like a regular thunderstorm. 20 laps left on the race....come on power..stay on

High winds and very dark sky here in Lake Ridge; no rain yet, but it's beginning to thunder and the cat just dashed under the bed. We've been dealing with intermittent power outages here since around 2 p.m (the recording on Dominion says they're due to "failure of an underground line"), which is adding to the fun.

Got back yesterday from a week of fishing on the St. Lawrence, about 30 miles SW of Montreal, & they r also having record breaking heat. The water temp was the warmest in recent memory on the seaway, which really shut off the samllmouth bite. At least temps only in the mid 80's. I get home & it's 101, yuck, & no rain while I was gone. Now have gotten 1.4" of rain since June 3. Looks like this batch of storms will once again avoid my yard. All the bushes I planted this spring r dead. Really 3-4 days of soaking rain.

Storm has wound down and left Fair Oaks. You can see patches of blue sky to the west, but on radar it looks like beyond that there is another line of just showers coming. Temp still at 74 and holding. This was mainly a wind and rain storm for us.

Cleared Falls Church...lots of sirens out there. I live near Rt 66, hope nothing bad going on. A million sticks in the street but trees look ok around here. Power flickered a lot but it's steady on now

Starting to calm down in Alexandria. Came in fast, and the wind was intense for a bit. Power flickered but we survived- I think my little sunflower and lavender plants did not. Thank God for the break though-- we asthmatics needed something to clear the air for us (not to mention break the heat)!

Woah! That was intense. That big cell hit us here in Laytonsville at 3:10- winds first, then the deluge. Lost power several times, really surprised, and happy, it's back (Sorry to those without- been there many times).

According the the wind meter (Wunderground weather station) at the golf course, we got a 64 mph wind gust, and I believe it. While I was doing last minute prep, the whole house shook for several minutes due to the wind (ok probably less than that, but it seemed like it). This reminded me of a tropical storm I once went through. The rain was torrential, and wind blown. Our road was nearly overcome by the runoff, leaving a passable center. Funny, now that I look at the weather station, it seems to have stopped sending data sometime after that wind gust.

The system had an eerie grey-blue hue to it in places as it approached, and some of the lightning was plain startling. I saw a big array of cloud to cloud lightning crawl across the NW sky... and then another power outage.

The tornado warning popped up a mile or two south of us, and I can see why. That part of the storm was visible from here, and had a greenish hue to it, like the type they show on the tornado chasing shows. It was big, too.

I have to give some credit to the mobile smart phone industry and the weather web sites that have made themselves compatible. I was able to use my pda phone while the power was out to first find out about the tornado warning, and second to determine how close it actually was as we moved to the basement. I could have, instead, used a weather radio, but the stuff available on the cell phone was much more specific- especially the live radar feeds. Now had the network gone down... weather radio all the way.

I hope everyone is ok. I have to go check around for damage now that the rain has stopped. Can you believe my 4 yr old slept through the whole thing- including being carried downstairs until it was safe, yet if I open a soda can on the other side of the house, she's up...go figure.

Temperature in Crystal City dropped from 97 to 75 in about 15 minutes. It was quite fun to watch everyone in the nearby apartment buildings stand out on our balconies and watch the storm clouds come rolling in, followed by the winds, and then make a mad dash indoors as the rain began.

Just as the storm was beginning, there was what looked to be an electrical explosion just behind the fire station at 18th St S and S Hayes St. Flash of green, then flash of white, and blue and white sparks. I saw it from my 7th floor balcony, but didn't get to see anything after that, as the rain started in earnest right after. It could have been either the seniors center or the soccer fields. Either way, it looked bleedin' awesome!